


Heart of A Warrior, Soul of A Dragon

by SilverButterfly111



Series: Heart of A Warrior, Soul of A Dragon [1]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Gen, HTTYD 1 with a twist, Hiccup gets credit for the things he does, Hiccup is "one of them" and hates it, I don't know what to tag this, POV Astrid Hofferson, POV Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Vikings can swear goddamnit, and doesn't do, just give the boy credit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2019-08-08
Packaged: 2020-08-13 01:41:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20166043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverButterfly111/pseuds/SilverButterfly111
Summary: Astrid doesn't know how to kill a dragon. Yet. Hiccup gets praised just for trying. Which is annoying. But that's the kind of treatment you get when you're the son of the Chief. Praised even when you have nothing to show for it. All because people are afraid of crossing your father...So when Hiccup "claims" to have shot and killed a Night Fury. Astrid's had enough and goes looking for the proof.....She might not have thought this through...





	Heart of A Warrior, Soul of A Dragon

This is Berk. It's twelve days north of Hopeless, and a few degrees south of Freezing to Death. Located solidly on the Meridian of Misery.

My village. In a word, sturdy. And it's been here for seven generations, but, every single building is new. We have fishing, hunting, and a charming view of the sunsets. The only problems are the pests. You see, most places have mice or mosquitoes. We have- dragons. Most people would leave. Not us. We're Vikings. We have stubbornness issues.

My name's Astrid. Great name, I know. But, it's not the best. Parents believe that a hideous name will frighten off gnomes and trolls. So what kind of name is Astrid? That doesn't strike any fear at all!

"Astrid! Get to the wells; those fires aren't going to put out themselves and I don't trust the twins or the rest of the lot on fire-watch tonight! The point is to stop damage not cause it!"

"Sir, yes Sir!"

That's Stoick the Vast. Chief of the tribe. They say that when he was a baby, he popped a dragon's head clean off its shoulders. Do I believe it? Yes, I do.

I run off in the direction he told me. Towards the blacksmith forge. Not that I'd be too hard to find the helpful screams of-

"FIRE!"

××××

Fishlegs, Snoutlout and the twins are already waiting for me when I get to the well. Grabbing a bucket that's already been filled I head towards the house that's already in danger of burning to the ground. Ordering the others to go ahead of me.

"Alright, let's go!"

I'm not going to complain because orders are orders but I think our job is pretty useless…I mean. It would be so much more helpful if I knew how to kill dragons. The less dragons. The less fires anyone would have to put out in the first place but for now I'm stuck where I am because Stoick says there's no need for anymore dragon-killing Vikings. So Gobber's not training any recruits.

Too busy worrying about his little apprentice Hiccup to be bothered with the rest of us kids- I mean little in the sense that he's tiny- the kid's our age and has no muscles whatsoever- I don't know how that's possible because works in the forge all day.

Hiccup is the son of the Chief.

The kid messes up all the time and still gets credit for trying! Which is so unfair! Because killing a dragon is everything around here.

….A Nadder head is sure to get me at least noticed;

Gronckles are tough. Taking down one of those would definitely get me a boyfriend- not that I have many options when it comes to those- A Zippleback? Exotic. Two heads, twice the status; then, there's the Monstrous Nightmare. Only the best Vikings go after those. They have this nasty habit of setting themselves on fire.

But the ultimate prize is the dragon no one has ever seen. We call it the-

"Night Fury!"

"Get down!"

This thing never steals food, never shows itself, and... never misses. No one has ever killed a Night Fury. That's why I'm going to be the first…

Astrid breaks out of her contemplating in time to see Gobber rush out of the blacksmith shop and into the fray. Yelling like the hooligan he is. That's not what makes the blonde roll her eyes.

Ugh...Hiccup…being an idiot yet again; Still Astrid can't help but be curious as she watches the auburn haired boy emerge from the forge about thirty seconds after his mentor pushing some sort of contraption behind him.

Thor only knows what that thing does!

...Gods now she wants to know what it does!

Astrid huffs in frustration with herself.

She gives this five minutes before everything goes wrong. Turning back to her task of trying to smother flames from still-burning houses.

It's two minutes before she hears the embarrassingly high-pitched scream and turns with an almost audible roll of her eyes as she watches Hiccup's silhouette running across the rise of the hill. Backlit by orange light from the lingering fires. The hulking shadow of a Monstrous Nightmare in pursuit.

"Come on!" Calls Ruffnut. Waving to her as Fishlegs, Snoutlout and the twins rush in the direction that the dragon and boy are headed in.

She has little choice but to follow. She's certainly not putting out fires by herself thank you!

××××

By the time the group of young Vikings catch up to Hiccup Stoick is already there and scolding his son for being reckless though not being as harsh as he could be.

"Best you go on home son and leave the rest of us to clean up this mess." The Chief says. Pushing his offspring towards the blacksmith.

"...But I actually hit a dragon this time-" The brown haired boy protests. As Gobber steers him away. "It went just over Raven's Point if we get a search party out there we can-"

"Hey, you tried your best." Tuffnut chimes in.

Astrid sighs, the sound somewhere between sympathy and irritation. There's the praise.

Hiccup isn't having any of it today though. As the rest of the group tries to form ranks around him he retreats. Muttering under his breath.

"Don't...it was a Night Fury I actually _ did _ something this time!"

Astrid lifts her head at this. Watching as Hiccup and Gobber retreat back to the village. Then one by one the rest of the kids follow, retreating to their own homes.

Leaving Astrid to turn blue eyes to the woods.

….Raven's Point…

××××

"What am I doing out here? What was I thinking? That I'd just go into the woods with my ax hunting a dragon that isn't going to be there because no one, no one has _ ever _seen a Night Fury. Much less shot one down!"

Astrid fumed to herself as she trudged through the undergrowth. Swinging her ax at another cluster of tree branches that block the path. She doesn't understand why she's so determined in this fruitless endeavor to find a dragon that's probably already dead- 

"Except it's not dead because you didn't _ actually _shoot it down Hiccup! You didn't do yak shit, you never do and somehow it's always 'oh Hiccup is so great, Hiccup is so smart, Hiccup can do anything, why do the rest of us even tr-"

Astrid pauses in the midist of her seemingly endless tirade to halt with a single hand on her hip. Breathing so heavily from rage and combined physical exertion that there might as well have been smoke billowing from her nostrils. She's glaring at the tree so hard it takes her a moment to realize that it's bent. Broken in half and splintered…. Only one creature on Thor's earth could have done that type of damage.

"Dragon." She muttered under his breath, clutching her ax subconsciously tighter as her blue eyes flicker across the path of obvious destruction she's somehow missed in her tirade. as she crept forward. A strange emotional mixture of dread, excitement and wariness tied her stomach into knots.

She summoned enough energy to creep forward anyway. Hiding herself behind a small dip behind a hill. Heart pounding in her chest as disbelief and denial waged war in her mind about the silloute she'd glimpsed before self-presentation kicked in.

"No!" She hissed. 

Because it can't be! It can't! It's not possible! She edged around the rock, shoulder plates of her armor scraping like claws. Ax raised slightly in both hands to swing should she find an actual set of claws suddenly upon her….

Another glance confirmed her half-panicked conclusion, yet it takes confirmation that the creature isn't capable of lunging at her and summoning all the courage in her blood to creep out from behind her relative shelter before she's entirely convinced.

It's a Night Fury, an honest to Gods Night Fury!

The first thing she does is kick it in a fit of perfectly justifiable rage.

"Shit!" She screamed. "Shit! This ruins _ everything! _ He did it! He actually fucking did it! Well what am I supposed to now! Go back to the village and tell everyone else that Hiccup _ actually _managed to kill a Night Fury? Watch his ego get so big he'll become worse than Snotlout?!"

Astrid retreated from the dragon's side half a step. Planting her foot on the creature's foreleg in a pose of an explorer staking claim to land. Glaring down at the mass of motionless scales. Too consumed by rage to process the faintest bit of warmth seeping through her fur boot that betrayed the dragon's living state.

Until it shifted underneath her foot with an ominous bellow of protest.

The blonde shieldmaiden subconsciously retreated from the dragon as it jerked its head upward like its previous limb and Astrid found herself being stared down by a pair of glowing green eyes and shining black pupils.

She heard the rumbling of a second growl building within its chest like thunder warned against a storm. She met it's gaze with her own as it lowered its head and bared its teeth in a snarl.

Unyielding, dauntless. A warrior who wasn't going to give up the fight regardless of being knocked down.

She made her decision then, the first of many. Before she can think better of it she's at the dragon's side; pulling and slashing at ropes that bind wings. Trying to be as quick and persise with her ax blade as possible to avoid the possibility of snapping teeth.

She doesn't know how many of the ropes she's cut or how many the creature itself snapped when it unfurled it's wings in loosened bonds.

All she knows it that she's suddenly pinned beneath the ground and a pissed off dragon. It reared on hind legs and she expected it to slam it's clawed feet against her chest hard enough to shatter her breast bone. Squish her lungs and her heart.

It screamed in her face and Astrid managed to register pain though it seemed dull in comparison to the ringing in her ears.

×××

She doesn't know exactly how much time she's lost to lying on the ground but when she does manage to pull herself to her feet and retrieve her ax that had been flung to the side in the ordeal. The Night Fury is gone, and she's alive with no more damage to explain other than a broken rib.

Astrid has enough of her senses back to acknowledge the sense of humor reaching the conclusion that she's been kicked by a dragon. She oddly found her lips turning upward at the thought and makes slow yet confident progress back to Berk. Favoring her left side.

×××

Hiccup blinked against the flames of the fire in the blazing hearth. Jaw set as he cast the occasional glance out to the gradually brightening sky. He'd considered going out into the woods to find the Night Fury. Then kept deciding against it.

What would be the point in trudging through the woods and likely getting lost just to find a dragon and die when he had already been given credit for the accomplishment. Why bother getting proof? Why try?

Hiccup's fingers subconsciously curled around the armrests of his father's chair. Contemplating the uselessness of lighting a fire when there probably still half a dozen blazing outside of his house.

But going outside to examine the remaining aftermath of the raid would result in running into his father and Hiccup was certain he wouldn't be able to face his father in public. Much less the public themselves. Without screaming at someone.

If one more person sung undeserved praises to his face- he wasn't sure what he'd do exactly but it wouldn't end well for anyone involved.

The door swung open on heavy hinges and ended Hiccup's half-formed plans of escape. He glanced longingly at the stairs out of the corner of his eye as he mentally braced himself for impending conversation with his father.

"Well," Stoick heaved a sigh that was better compared to a gust of wind. Partly satisfied mostly exhausted. "All the fires are out, Gods only know where Astrid disappeared to when I put her in charge of them." Stoick rubbed the side of his face muttering something practically intangible as he glimpsed his son though parted fingers.

"You're here." He remarked, stating the obvious was one of his strong suits that Hiccup had actually inherited.

"You sound shocked, where else would I be?" Hiccup answered with a shrug that was mostly hidden thanks to his position in the massive chair.

"Well at least someone around here listens." Stoick commented sounding satisfied.

"Makes one of us." Hiccup mumbled under his breath. Either the edge of sarcasm was completely lost on his father or Stoick thought the comment was made at Astrid's expense. Either was possible and Hiccup didn't have the energy to bother figuring out which it actually was.

The casual praise fell on mostly deaf ears.

Hiccup didn't recall standing and moving out from behind the protection that the chair provided. Didn't feel it when his hands clenched into fists. Hiccup summoned false confidence stored up by unearned praise to lift his chin and look his father in the eyes.

"I want to start dragon training."

Stoick paused for a moment, not expecting this unrelated concept to be brought up by his son whom held more than enough standing among his peers as Gobber's prodigy and Stoick's only son without adding dragon-fighter to the mix.

"We already have enough dragon-killing Vikings." Stoick reasoned.

"But if you let me and the others into the kill ring I might finally- you could make another voyage to look for the dragon's nest without having to worry about leaving Berk undefended. We could finally make progress!"

Stoick seemed to _ actually c_onsider the idea and Hiccup crossed his fingers that all of his unearned merit would actually work in his favor.

"You do have a point...you'll start tomorrow. I'll call a meeting at the Great Hall in the morning and get volunteers on the ships-" 

Hiccup stopped paying attention at that point. Goal accomplished- the easiest part of it anyway- Now he just had to not die as a consequence.

"Great," Hiccup forced enuthenthusiasm into his tone. "Well in that case, I'm off to bed. Good talk." 

"Hm? Oh yeah, good talk, I'll see you in the morning. Probably." Stoick muttered, still half lost in thought of how to mobilize two thirds of his armada in the span of an afternoon.

××××

"I want to go to Dragon Training!" Astrid insisted upon waking from her measly three hours of sleep. Having arrived home to a mother waiting up for her..

"Absolutely not!" Her mother objected with an expression that left little room for argument.

Astrid argued anyways.

"Hiccup gets to go." Astrid pointed out. Hoping that the argument would come out a justification.

If Stoick was going to let his combat-challenged heir into a pit full of angry overgrown lizards the Astrid saw no reason why _ she _ couldn't gain the same treatment from her parents. She was more than capable of killing a dragon...last night's lasp in common sense aside. Astrid _ knew _she could kill a dragon. If she was just given a second chance.

Last night wasn't as easily pushed aside as she would have hoped.

"_Hiccup, d_oesn't have a broken rib lass," Astrid's father chimed in. Waving his chicken leg to indicate her injury.

"How'd you get it again?"

Astrid bit her lip and glanced down at the mud caked across her boots; yet another reminder of what had happened last night- early this morning-

Astrid racked her brain for a plausible explanation that _ didn't _ involve her facing down a dragon in the woods alone. That would be as good as telling the rest of the village to arm themselves to kill a menace.

Astrid knew that was the logical thing to do especially when she was trying to convince them to let her kill a dragon. Yet something made her hesitate.

"...I- fell into a ditch and landed wrong." Astrid flinched and prayed that her parents would read it as pain rather than an outward tell of how flimsy the excuse was.

Astrid had fallen from cliffs higher than any ditch on Berk and walked away without broken bones. She wondered for a moment if sh had hit her head on a rock when the Night Fury had pinned her… That would explain her impaired thinking.

Her mother and father exchangeed a look and sighed in near unison.

"You can go to Dragon Training-" 

"Yes! Thank you I won't let you dow-" 

"-_ After _ your rib heals." Her mother cuts in.

"That will take a month!" Astrid protests. Shaking her head and on the verge of whining like a child half her age.

"Everyone will be so far ahead of me there won't be a point!"

"I'm sure your peers wouldn't mind helping you catch up. Hiccup and Fishlegs in particular seem like just the type of people who wouldn't mind helping you at all. I'll bring the idea to Stoick's attention at the meeting!"

Astrid's already matching out of the room. One more word away from throwing all of her remaining dignity out the door and screaming. Though she supposed she can't really blame her parents for making the suggestion. 

It's a good one, and she might even have admitted that it was if it had just involved Fishlegs. Why. Did. _ Everything _. Revolve around Hiccup all of the time?!

Talk about adding insult to injury and to make everything more infuriating she's going to to miss six weeks of Dragon Training with word of mouth as one of the few sources of information and her peers have a blindingly obvious bias.

_ "Hiccup did this, Hiccup did that." _And she won't have witnessed the events herself to know the difference between truth and lie.

Though if Astrid is completely honest with herself she doesn't know what Hiccup is capable of anymore. He _ did _actually shoot down a Night Fury.

_ But I let it live _ ** _. _ **Astrid felt her stomach sink at the realization. Anything that happens because of that creature is going to be on her hands. Not Hiccup's.

...Any blood it might spill will be on Astrid's hands.

The Night Fury is her responsibility now.

Absolutely no one can find out what Astrid has done.


End file.
